1. Field of the Invention;
The invention concerns a flexible tube comprising a skirt and a head which are both at least in part of plastics material for the distribution of a paste with stripes.
2. Description of Related Art
FR-B-2 572 366 (=EP-A-0 182 725) to the present applicants describes such a tube in which the head comprises a neck portion which carries a discharges orifice and possibly a cap, and below the neck portion a shoulder by way of which the head is connected by moulding to the skirt of the tube, the head further comprising an inner skirt of plastics material which is in one piece with the head, being moulded in the same injection moulding operation as the head. The inner skirt has slots for the striped product to pass therethrough, and often pairs of longitudinal ribs which extend from the top of the slots towards the top of the internal surface of the neck portion, for guiding the coloured product for discharge thereof in the form of a stripe in the pasty material. The slots for the coloured product to pass therethrough go down to the lower end of the inner skirt when the product for the stripes is fairly viscous.
With the tubes in accordance with the foregoing description, having longitudinal ribs bordering only over a distance of 2 mm the top of the longitudinal slots which extend to the bottom of the inner skirt and extending to a position in line with the orifice of the neck portion, experience has shown that the stripes produced in the distributed pasty material have woolly contours, particularly at the end of distribution of the pasty material. In addition, when beginning the step of pressing the tube, the coloured stripes appear clearly in the strand of paste which is discharged, only with a delay that is typically 10 to 20 mm after the strand of pasty material begins.
In addition, and this is a nuisance, experience has shown that with the same tubes and also with tubes having a stripe-producing end portion fitted thereto, the inner, generally non-deformable skirt was often felt by the user as an obstacle to completing expulsion of the pasty material.
The applicants sought to develop a tube for the distribution of a paste with stripes, having an inner skirt in one piece with the head of the tube, which with a structure which is favourable to mass-production moulding, both gives an improved quality of stripe and provides that the stripes appear closer to the beginning of the strand of pasty material. As an additional consideration, the applicants also tried to make the inner skirt deformable, so as to be compatible with the foregoing requirements and also eliminating the impediment flet by users at the end of the operation of pressing material out of the tubes.